Around my French Table

No, I haven't gone over to the "dark side." I am still an Italian cook. But once in a while you need a day trip. Although having now read all of the recipes in Dorie Greenspan's sumptuous Around My French Table, I know I will be taking lots of day trips. Maybe a weekend - you know I might just stay for a week.

Last night's dinner. Healthy, easy and filled with simple, French flavor. A beautiful welcoming green broccoli soup, a festive Salad Nicoise and a mustard tart graced the table. As I am surrounded by snowy whites, the deep green of the soup warmed me. It's rich, thick broccoli-zucchini flavor brought me back to a Minnesota enveloped in summer.

The Salad Nicoise with its simple vinaigrette was a taste celebration. I added tomatoes for color and relished in the soft, pliable hard-boiled egg, the sea-tasting tuna, the crunch of the just-yielding string beans. A few salty capers and piquant nicoise olives with with mild potatoes satisfied in a way that only a properly attired salad can.

Even when it's fifteen degrees out, this salad brings solace.

Just the notion of a mustard tart warms my savory soul. The use of a smooth Dijon mustard as well as a grainy one provided zest without sharpness. Mellowing the mustard are the sweet carrots on top of aromatic leeks. The original recipe was given to Dorie by Gerard Jeannin and she describes it as "creamy and piquant, comforting and surprising." And so it is. Dorie also mentions that it is not as well known as it should be. I suspect that's about to change.

I promise you that after you make it once, a second one will soon follow. Find the recipe here.

Around my French Table contains over 300 recipes that are French or French inspired. They've been adapted to meet the needs of busy American cooks. The ingredients are accessible. When she does use a hard-to-find French ingredient, she suggests an American substitute. For many recipes there is a "Bon Idee" (I wish my computer did proper accents). It is one of my favorite parts. In that small column, she suggests other ingredients, alternative ways of making the dish and encourages you to play with the recipes.

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I chose these three recipes quite frankly because I had all the ingredients at hand. The level of difficulty for all three was easy. I expect some will be moderately more difficult although as I read the book, I did not come across any recipe that I felt was out of my grasp.

What is inspiring is the playfulness of Dorie's cooking. Fresh, artfully arranged ingredients that are elevated through nuances of herbs, seasonings and adherence to cooking methods. The broccoli soup is one of three simple soup recipes, Dorie has grouped together. Find the recipe here. (I added a shallot - I don't think Dorie would mind.)

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Each recipe provides suggestions for serving and storing. The book is a storehouse of hints and suggestions. Backgrounds of recipes are included - which always intrigues me. For every recipe is a story and Around My French Table contains a wealth of stories - to peruse, to investigate, to explore and to feast.

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Put this on your holiday wish list. It's been two years since I cooked my way through a book and that drought has now ended. For the time being I am content to live on the border between Italy and France and embrace the best of both worlds.

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I have a list of cookbooks I would like to embrace. Where do you get your cookbooks? Do you belong to a club? Buy from Amazon? Barnes and Noble? Do you haunt used book stores, cooking stores?

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And a touch of sweetness to end - I would like to thank Beth from Of Muses and Meringues for this lovely award. Beth is a writer and a cook and her delicately-named blog is indeed filled with muses and puffs of sweetness and insights. Please visit her and say hello.